On Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:49:41 -0800 (PST), the infamous
" scrawled the
following:

On Feb 15, 8:32*pm, Larry Jaques wrote:

I think it's used primarily because it's tough, textured to hold
compound, and has some silica in it in the first place.


I think you are right. That seems to be the consensus.


Semi-soft, open-pored wood could probably be used fairly well. *AAMOF,
for curved gouges, wood works extremely well. Cut a curl in the wood
(without removing the chip), rub compound into the gap, and you can
hone both sides of the gouge at once.

I hadn't thought of that until you posted, but one of the wood carvers
I know and one of the wood turners I know have made their own wheels
out of dense MDF to fit on their Tormek knock off machines.

The turned the wheel round, but a "one fits all" groove in it, and
they charge it with the Tormek stuff and polish away at a slow speed.

The guy that was telling me about it said he got the idea from one of
his carving buddies that has thick pieces of MDF with the shape of the
carving tool (groove, "V", round, etc.) cut into the MDF by the tool
itself. To sharpen, he simply puts a bit of compound into the correct
groove and polishes on the MDF strop.

Here's the static version of that.
http://www.carvingpatterns.com/sharpening-2.htm


Some pretty smart guys out there....

Ayup, and "cheap" begets "innovation", Naily.

--
It's a great life...once you weaken.
--author James Hogan